Internet browsing can be experienced in many digital devices now-a-days, moving away from the conventional method of browsing internet through a computer. Though the extension of Internet browsing to digital devices is fast paced, rendering a browsing technique in such digital devices becomes cumbersome, since Internet browsing is not the primary functionality of the digital devices.
A middleware layer in a network device, such as set-top box (STB), provides a conducive platform for developing applications that can be displayed on a broadcasting-receiving apparatus such as a television. The network device can exist standalone, like STB, or be a part of the television. In one instance, an application for the television is deployed in the STB. The application may be a thick client application or a thin client application. Typically, thick client applications may be developed in two ways, viz. by means of a development STB provided by middleware vendors or by means of an emulator on a computer which can emulate similar environmental conditions as that of the STB. The traditional method of developing an application using the development STB provided by the middleware vendor is expensive due to the cost incurred for buying the development STB. The latter method of emulating the STB environment in the computer to develop applications is a more viable option.
Commercial emulators available for the purpose of emulating the STB environment are priced at par with the development STB offered by the middleware vendors. Although emulating STB environment in the computer and developing the application is easy for the developer, the available emulators offer a spectrum of functionalities that may be exclusive.
In light of the discussion above, a browser that can help in migrating applications from being thick client to thin client would be desirable. This would, in turn, provide more flexibility such as enabling any type of existing application to be rendered in the STB. Also, existing browsers have inherent problems in developing an application supporting different input types such as Hypertext Markup Language (HTML), Extensible Hypertext Markup Language (XHTML) along with displaying the corresponding elements in different output toolkits.
Thus, existing mechanisms used for rendering browsing techniques in a network device which is displayed on a broadcasting-receiving apparatus have inherent problems as discussed above. Further, developing and deploying the digital application with all the advantages increases the costs. Accordingly, there is a need for developing and deploying the digital application in network devices, which should be supported by any type of middleware.